Ultra-discount carrier Spirit Airlines had a summer meltdown, with only half of its flights getting to the gate on-time. Scott McCartney joins the News Hub with a look at what went wrong. Photo: AP.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... the ... fall twenty it's also much from home and on acid rain construction accident and Alan hiccups kept people ... from getting to point a to point B on time ... but there is one Ally Manhattan melt I'm like no other ... Middle Seat columnist Scott McCartney joins me now ... it's gotten so was always a pleasure to have you ... do you Simon ... it is very sad I just I mean I'm bracing myself forty about that only ... aam Westwood among national Llamas side you say the four plates of some of travel hit this on top ... it was not a good summer for travelers ... overall the on time rate was was down ... and was down a couple of percentage points that there were eight or underlined that there were some on bigger problems ... the number of canceled flights was up significantly about fifteen percent the number of flights ... were delayed ... in twenty five minutes or more ... it was up sixteen percent ... so ... when there were problems and they were pretty severe ... and ... and and we saw across the country in line after line that they had ... I'm pretty sure declines in their performance this summer on as you said a one no one really stood out among the bunch Spirit Airlines based in Florida ... yes I am lines now what went wrong that effectively would spare and was that how they handled this ... well was it just extraordinarily bad block ... that night I it's very much me and ... the weather is no different from first period than it is for other airlines that ... either ... this summer was marked by heavy rains and a lot of cities along the sky it's ... been a lot of airlines ... aam and but some pretty serious problems all summer long in sentences go ... but ... it's there ... they run a very lean operation they utilize their more than that more per day than any other airline ... there were there well above twelve hours a day it's an hour nap more utilization and even Southwest which is ... Katie and ... this is um ... significant aircraft utilization every ... every year ... aam and ... you know the lack of spare aircraft has ... been growing quickly to try and work groups ... on Tuesday ... in the capacity ... to handle the lanes in someone's claim that the delay in it to the delay in every subsequent flooding ... still hovered a day after day interest or install Scott's parents earnings and a ... visit is that the expansion given how things will hurt them ... while they win one of the stanzas are not keeping up that's gonna hurt me not stir it says that China ... builder of Nenad states is in Dallas and Chicago they're trying to add to their crew bases in Maine and United Dallas and Chicago on so ... eventually though no case to ... the number of flights that spread was this summer was up fourteen percent ... on its pages Diane and it's an airline that is always going to lean on to not run ... as well when trouble strikes as as other lines but ... no summer there in the seventies in on time percentages are only after Wyatt's made it on time ... but significant portion where were excessively to a forty five minutes more ... um all know it's not a dependable and was not a ... lawyer on this summer ... and in ... that sense of money to fix things ... don't dependable mobile app believe that the aroma to slightly